meow

Last week I sat down to do my nails and realized that I only show you my mini art when there's a holiday afoot.  How dare I keep my regular-day nails from you wonderful people :).  From now on I promise to show and tell whenever there is something to show or tell about.

So here's what I've been sporting this week:

Cat Scratch Fever!

These cat nails were really fun to do! 

...Although some of them look more like bears :)!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

how to draw a moose

Remember back when I talked to you about Oliver Jeffers?
Well, he came out with a new book called This Moose Belongs to Me, and as I was searching for it I found this charming video of Oliver Jeffers showing us how to draw a moose!!


Fantastic!! I love his accent.
This video makes me want to go find some old landscape paintings and draw animals into . . .
Maybe I will!
 

emergency compliments

If you're feeling down and you need a boost check out emergency compliment.  It's a hilarious random compliment generator.

So far these are my favorites . . .

What a great idea!!
And if you really love the comment, you can buy a print of it!!
I might need the top one for my kitchen.

wishful wednesdays {a flor floor}

One thing this Lazy Lady does best is fantasize about the future.  I'm not very good at living "in the now," I'm always thinking about the next recipe we should make, or couch we should buy, or city we'll live in, or job I could have, and where we'll be in 1, 3, 5, or 15 years.  It's not really the healthy way to live, buuuut sometimes I come up with some really great futures, and every once and a while those futures come true. . . 

Hello All! The holidays are officially over and I'm maybe, kinda, almost, practically all done being sick! And that means it's time to start bloggin' again.

Since I've already thoroughly discussed my rug finding dilemma, I'll just jump right in.

Flor is awsome.

Flor is a company that makes "modular carpet tiles"  They have all sorts of styles, piles and colors and with them you can make any size and pattern of rug you want.

You can just make a runner:

Or cover your whole room in wall-to-wall carpeting:

They have all sorts of patterns:

And textures:

And solids in every color imaginable:

They've even made carpet tiles to reproduce some of the trendy looks you see in full sized carpets, like the over-dyed vintage rugs I was talking about the other day:

And the best part is you're not stuck to one look:

You can mix and match any type of tile you want and lay them out in any order, it's completely customizable!

You can even cut them up and make half sized ones for a smaller boarder or go crazy and make your own designed rug like Sabrina Soto did in an episode of The High Low Project (I ♥ HGTV):

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Once I found Flor all of my carpet woes melted away, I am no longer afraid of spills and stains ruining the whole carpet (you can replace just one tile or even wash one in the sink!), and I no longer feel stuck spending hundreds of dollars on something that might not be the right dimensions in our next place.  It's so awesome!!!

How about you? Have you already heard of Flor? Is it old news? Are you as pumped about it as I am? Or would you rather stick to a no-assembly-required rug?

Tell me, I want to know!

p.s. I have in no way been compensated to write this post I just really really love Flor's products :).

2013!!

Happy New Year!

Is everyone excited for 2013? Any big plans for the next twelve months?
I've been sick since Christmas Eve so The Man and I stayed in last night, and fought tooth and nail to stay up till midnight, we just barely made it and crawled into bed at 12:01.  How do I sound so old at 25?

holiday nails

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We are having a blast here in Portland (even though I've been sick the whole time - boo).  Last years Christmas nails were impossible to beat so this year I decided to use rhinestones for the first time . . .

They don't stay on very well, but they sure do sparkle!!

Merry Happy Christmas and I'll see you in the New Year!!

holiday cheer!

I'm so excited for the holidays.
The tree is trimmed,

Our house is decked,

The stockings are sewn,

(I took another class at The Needle Shop and made The Man a Christmas Stocking I bought the material to make one for myself as well...

but I didn't get very far)

the cookies are made,

 (Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies)

and in a few short hours we'll be eating delicious quiche for Christmas Brunch with my fam in Portland, Oregon.

On Thursday night I got one early and unexpected present.  One of the gals I work with got sick and could no longer use her ticket too . . .

Book Of Mormon!!!!!!!

I haven't been to a play in so long I honestly can't remember when it was.  It was so incredible and hilarious and amazing and so so so so so so so good! great! fantastically fabulous! Now I want so badly to get more tickets so I can take The Man (who not-so-secretly loves musicals) to go see it too.

So Merry Christmas Everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday and spend some over-due time with your families and people who love you.

snow is falling on the ground

My dad sent me this pic of my parents' front yard on Wednesday:

It's already snowing in Portland!

They say there's a storm a comin' to Chicago . . . well it best not be interferin' with my holiday plans!!!

wishful wednesdays {rugs}

Oh Lordy, I've been searching for an area rug for almost 2 years now.  And the search is finally over . . maybe.

When I first moved to Chicago my mom and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to procure a few staples to make the all white rectangle of a dorm I was moving into as cozy as possible.  In that large haul we bought a rug.  It was low-pile, it was 50 bucks, and it was deep purple, for all intents and purposes it was perfect.  And through 4 years and 5 moves it served me very well, no matter how many slush covered boots stepped on it and PBR cans spilled on it, it never showed a single stain and it always seemed to go with the hodgepodge interior design of multiple art students.

After I graduated there were a few months of floating.  I lived in my friend's foyer and had every intention of moving back to Portland that December, leaving this cold snowy city behind me.  So everything that couldn't fit into 7' x 8' space had to go.  Everything I couldn't sell I put out in the magic alleyways of Chicago (magic because anything you leave out gets snatched up with in hours, if not minutes, of you putting it there). And so went my purple rug (and dresser and desk and couch and chairs and etc.).

As you can probably tell, I did not move back to Portland.  That October I met the love of my life and slowly but surely we've been making our house (i.e. various apartments) a home.  Since he was a bachelor living in a warehouse all we had when we moved into an apartment together was a mattress and a couch (neither of which he knew the origin of . . ew).  Unfortunately we still have the couch, but there have been many beautiful handcrafted editions made to our space by The Man, and what better to tie them together and cozy up a living room than an area rug. Right?  There are so many options that are fun and beautiful and comfy, but none of them ever seemed to be in our too-low-for-any-rug-ever price range.

via.

There are so many patterns and styles that have been coming in and out of popularity in these two years it's hard to catch up, and even harder to sift through them all and find something you truly love and that won't feel outdated in a year or so.

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There are linear patterns like stripes and chevrons.  I always liked the color of this chevron rug from Urban Outfitters, although considering it almost looks dirty before it's even left the store I don't think it would hold up very well in our high-traffic living room.

via.

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The Rand rug from Ikea is just about everywhere.  It's a nice off-set black and white striped rug and I definitely thought about it, but because it's a flatwoven rug I'm pretty sure the edges would start to curl after a while.

via.

Trellis patterns were all the rage for a while, and there are tons of colors and pattern sizes to choose from.  I like these because they are classy but they're not stuffy, you can use them to go a more traditional route or you can use them to design a more fun and contemporary room.

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I like this "Kite Kilim" rug from West Elm , although this pattern doesn't look like the traditional kilim rugs, which are still geometric but have a wider range of colors and patterns within one rug or tapestry.  This pattern works if you're going for a more global style . . . which we are not.

High-pile rugs feel so good on your feet, and there are so many kinds to snuggle into. From fluffy shag

via.

To the newly popular Beni Ourain Moroccan rugs

via.

To furry Flokati rugs

 via.

But considering how much we love to eat on those tv trays, and the fact that I don't like to vacuum, maybe furry isn't a good idea.

Another trend that I find beautiful but way to expensive, and perhaps too trendy, is over-dyed vintage rugs

 via.

They are so vibrant and unique.  The process takes something that was once so traditional and breathes new life into it, making it more contemporary yet still filled with history. It's like a mature way of owning a hot pink rug, and I love it!

 via.

 
About a year ago I almost bought this Denim Jute Rug

 It looked nice, with muted blues and browns, subtle but not too boring.  Then I went to the store, and no offense to West Elm, but up close it looked awful!! First of all, I have now learned that jute feels terrible. I can only imagine it in a mud room or as a doormat unless you feel like torchering your feet.  And denim should stick to being jeans, that's what it's good at, and that's what this rug looked like.  As if I had ripped up my jeans and bound it with some itchy thick twine.  I'm sorry for the sudden rant but after all that looking I thought I had finally found my rug.  So I was back to the drawing board . . .

Until I found Flor
      and Flor deserves it's own post.

How about you? Do you need something cozy under your feet?  Are you already set in the rug/carpet department? Do you agree that whoever decided jute rugs belong under bare feet should be seriously punished? Or do you have them all over your house?

Tell me, I want to know!

  

checkin' out the neighborhood {amy's candy bar}

Outside it's getting colder and darker.  Gone are the days of leisurely strolling, now is the time for brisk walks to determined destinations.  What with snow on the horizon and a pocket book ravaged by holiday sales, The Man and I haven't been checking out the neighborhood as much as we'd like, but we still, on occasion, find ourselves somewhere new.  And a few months back, when my parents were in town, we made a sweets stop at Amy's Candy Bar.

This place is candy heaven.  The decor is beautiful and the treats are plentiful.

They have every candy imaginable.  From old fashioned to fun and new, and even a little section of nostalgia candies for the young at heart.

 (A gumball table!)

We bought a bunch to try and I ended up discovering a new favorite.  Sponge candy! It's super delicious, and I don't even have to share because The Man hates it! Double Delicious!